


Plan B

by Whisper132



Series: The Honorable Society of Meddlers [9]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-15
Updated: 2008-06-15
Packaged: 2017-10-23 13:11:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whisper132/pseuds/Whisper132
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which something must be done about Kamio</p>
            </blockquote>





	Plan B

Sengoku was having a fine time. Sure his team didn't make it into nationals, but none of the teams that did make it in seemed to be enjoying themselves. Kikumaru was complaining because he couldn't remember his match, Jirou was dealing with Atobe's hair issues, Marui was bitching about having to lose for the sake of his not boyfriend, and Kamio…

Kamio was huddled on a bench, staring at his feet and mumbling, "Tachibana-san never told me," over and over again.

It was obvious, after their match, that Tachibana and Chitose were…close. Golden Pair close, even. Sengoku, being a wonderful friend, offered to show Kamio the wonderful ways of women if he'd decided to change his tune, but Kamio just wanted to sit on his bench, whimpering and sniffling out his heartbreak.

"What's up with him," Marui asked, sipping at a Pocari Sweat. "He's used to losing, right? He shouldn't be taking it so bad."

What Sengoku really liked about Bunta was his ability to say exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time in an emotional crisis. "He officially lost Tachibana," Sengoku whispered, pointing to the still unchanged scoreboard from Tachibana and Chitose's match. "They flirted the whole match."

"Crap."

"Yeah." Considering that Sengoku chose to remain a part of Team Hetero, he didn't feel it proper for him to be the most sympathetic to Kamio's plight. What did he know about losing crushes? He was The Master of Romance. "So, what're we going to do about it?" He pulled Marui further from Kamio and his bench of agony. "We can't just…leave him like that."

Marui glanced back, winced, and returned his gaze to the ground in thought. "I'll get with Jirou and work something out. He said he had an auxiliary plan for just such an occasion."

Sengoku didn't like Jirou's plans. Jirou's plans were complex and often humiliating. "I'm not wearing any spandex. Let him know that."

"I'll see what I can do, but no promises." A thumbs up and Bunta was off, sneaking toward the Hyoutei pavilion. Once Marui was out of sight, Sengoku returned to Kamio, hoping that none of the girls he'd given name cards to earlier would get the wrong idea.

  
*****

  
In a perfect world, Atobe would forget about his hair and simply be thankful that he had Jirou to keep him company in the bathroom while he stared at his unevenly shorn lockes and bemoaned his fate. In the real world, Atobe was being an idiot and taking Jirou's unconditional support for granted. So, when Jirou's cell phone flashed out Marui's emergency code, Jirou had no qualms about ducking out of the bathroom and heading straight to the rendezvous point.

"He found out about Chitose," Marui said as soon as Jirou was near. "Sengoku's taking care of him over on the east side of park, but we've got to work fast before he loses it. I called Brother Eiji but he's stuck doing team business until this afternoon."

"The Shitenhouji team is staying at Oshitari's this weekend. Yuushi's cousin is on the team and their coach spent all their travel money on alcohol and pizzas the first night." Jirou mapped out Oshitari's house in his mind, thinking of possible weaknesses in the estate's security. "It shouldn't be difficult to infiltrate if I call in some favors. We can spend the night in the west wing without drawing attention from Shitenhouji. From there we can begin the cleanup operation."

Marui dug a notepad and pen out of his pocket and began taking notes. "What equipment are we going to need?"

"Handcuffs, probably. None of the fur stuff that Sengoku's got on his sets; we'll need the real deal. Standard monitoring equipment should work okay." If they set up base and locked one of the rooms, nobody would be able to see the laptop or any of the speakers.

"Eiji's headset is busted from the last mission. Want me to dig into the party funds and replace it?"

Jirou handed Marui some cash. "Yeah. We'll need to be in constant communication during the operation. We can't let Kamio know what we're up to."

"So it's an operation within an operation? What's our cover?"

Jirou grinned. His eyes opened wide. "I've been meaning to collect on a favor Mukahi owes me. I think he and Oshitari will be the perfect distraction."

"Oh. Sengoku says he's not gonna wear the spandex. I told him I'd tell you."

Jirou's grin persisted. "Guess he'll get the maid outfit, then."

  
*****

  
Fishnets were not Sengoku's thing, neither were frilly skirts. Check that, they were Sengoku's thing when they were on cute girls at maid cafes, but when it was Sengoku in the fishnets and skirts, things had gotten completely out of hand. Asking Jirou to lead the mission had been a mistake, a big mistake.

"Don't scratch like that; you'll give yourself away." Marui fixed his lace cap and checked its positioning in a mirror. "The apron on straight?" Marui didn't seem too concerned that he'd lost the janken match to keep him out of one of the two maid outfits Jirou purchased for their undercover mission. Maybe he was just happy he wasn't going to be in spandex like the others.

Sengoku was starting to miss the spandex.

"I can't walk in these," Sengoku said, pointing to his high heels. "When I fall and break my neck, they're going to know what's going on."

"Give Eiji some credit. He did a really good job with the makeup. Nobody's gonna know." Marui fidgeted with his cap one more time before grinning at himself in the mirror. "Perfect. Now come on; we're supposed to be serving tea downstairs." Marui had no trouble walking in the heels. Maybe there were parts of Marui's life that Sengoku didn't want to know about.

"I'm completely unlucky today," Sengoku grumbled. Focusing, he picked up his serving tray and towel and followed Marui out of servant's quarters turned mission base.

  
*****

  
Jirou had not anticipated Shitenhouji's pervert density to be so high. Marui kept swatting hands away from his skirt and Sengoku had to keep stepping away when the bald kid in the glasses tried, repeatedly, to run his hands up Sengoku's legs. That Shitenhouji's coach was passed out on the living room couch clutching a wine bottle was not helping to restore Jirou's faith. Perhaps they would have to abort the mission and try again with a less…disgusting team.

"If you touch me again, I'll break your wrist, _sir_ ," Marui hissed, his fingers curling around Shitenhouji's captain's wrist, nails digging in. "Then you'll really need those stupid bandages."

"Now now, Maruko. Shiraishi is our guest." Oshitari Yuushi glided through the room, picked Marui up by the waist, and set him down out of Shiraishi's reach. "I would appreciate, however, if you did not seek indiscretions with our staff."

Shiraishi shrugged but continued to leer. "My apologies," he said. "Won't happen again."

After serving the remainder of the team their tea, Marui fixed his cap, which was the secret signal for "get your ass back to the control room, I need to talk to you _now._ "

Back in the control room, Jirou prepared himself for an earful.

Marui stomped around the room, threw down his cap, stomped on that, then plopped to the floor. "We're not getting anywhere," he said. "We need to stop joking around and get on with the plan."

Ah, nice, down to work Marui. "Right," Jirou said, taking out his notepad. "I acquired the sleeping locations of the Shitenhouji team members. We'll send Kamio in to this room here," he showed Marui the diagram, "and then begin the operation. Yuushi assured me that the location was secure."

Marui studied the diagram. "Did we set up cameras yet?"

"Eiji's finishing up as we speak."

"Did we use the full rotary mount with the dual sound input?"

"Two of them."

"Did we synch the recording feed?" Marui ticked off things on his fingers. "Make sure we put up the static barrier? Fluff the pillows and put snacks around the room?"

Jirou blinked. "I got the bedding covered, but I didn't think they needed snacks." Trust Bunta to think of snacks as a necessity. "I'll tell Kamio to bring them in as part of the mission. We'll use that as the springboard for our plan of action."

"Awesome." Marui picked up his lace cap and put it back on. "Alright, I'm going back out there. But if that guy tries to feel me up again, I'm jabbing my high heels into his thigh." He put a finger to Jirou's lips before a word could be said. "And if Akaya finds out about this, if _anybody_ finds out about this, your stuffed duck bites it."

Jirou's eyes widened. Surely Marui wouldn't harm DuckDuck. That was cruel. That was…a completely Rikkaidai thing to do. "My word," he told Marui. "I will not share any information on this one, and in return you leave the duck alone."

They pinky swore and Marui shuffled out the door while Jirou finished calibrating the laptop to pick up the camera. It was almost showtime.

******

Kamio was unsure how Sengoku convinced him to repel from Oshitari's roof and break into the window of one of the spare rooms, but there he was, harnessed and uncomfortable on the side of the building, ready for that last jump that would take him down, through the glass, and into the room where Sengoku and Marui would reveal their true identities, pull shuriken from their bonnets, and demand that team Shitenhouji resign from the national tournament on the grounds that…well, for some long and technical sounding reason that Jirou gave.

It all sounded so reasonable when they'd discussed it. Stuck in an uncomfortable harness and very tight spandex, Kamio was starting to doubt the brilliance of their plan.

Tachibana-san.

He had to remember that he was doing this to restore Tachibana-san's honor. That was worth any price, any ridiculous stunt or outfit. It all paled in the face of restoring Tachibana's good name in the tennis community.

"You in place?" Marui's voice called over Kamio's earpiece.

"Ready for the signal," he responded. With one last prayer for Tachibana's virtue, Kamio launched off the side of the house and into action.

  
*****

"Ouch." Marui pulled away from the popcorn bowl just long enough to wince as Kamio slammed into Oshitari Kenya's window.

"Guess busting through windows isn't so easy." Sengoku smirked and took a handful of popcorn.

"Wait! He's letting him in!" Kikumaru pointed to the viewscreen onto which Marui's laptop was projecting images from the various cameras Eiji placed in the room earlier.

Jirou clutched a pillow close to his chest – they were all spending the night to make sure things went as planned. "It's going to work! They're flirting!"

Eiji examined the video. "Kamio just kicked him in the face."

"I've seen this on TV," Marui said. "They fight, then they start fight-flirting."

"It's gonna work," Jirou insisted, giving Eiji the evil eye.

"If I was in a dress all day for nothing, I officially quit." Even though he'd insisted on bringing sweatpants to change into, Sengoku was still in his maid outfit.

Eiji eyed Sengoku's frilly skirt. "Yeah. Sure."

"I'm serious!"

"Cross your legs if you're going to sit like that!" Jirou covered his eyes and took shelter behind Kikumaru.

Sengoku looked to the duffel that held his clothes, shrugged, then crossed his legs.

  
*****

  
Oshitari Kenya woke up with something curled against him. He still had his clothes on, so he wasn't too worried that anything Yuushi-esque had happened while he was half asleep, but waking up next to a guy whose name you didn't know was still kinda weird.

"You're stealing the blanket," the boy next to him said. "Be nice or Tachibana-san will kick your ass."

Kenya took a hard look and remembered everything; the body hitting the window, the argument about whose captain was better, the accidental kissing, and passing out because fighting was damn hard work. "I'm calling you Akira since we've slept together." Actually, Kenya was going to call him Akira-chan, but wasn't going to say so aloud when Kamio was going to make a scene loud enough to attract attention. Right now Kenya didn't want attention, just some breakfast and maybe a foot massage from Akira-chan, who was really cute when his hair was going in five different directions.

Kamio tugged on the covers and rolled into a ball on his side. "Shut up. It's early."

Unable to resist, Kenya scooted in closer, curling himself around Kamio's back. "Yeah, I guess so."

They fought one another with elbows and knees until they found a comfortable position and fell asleep again.

  
*****

  
"I hate you." Kamio glared at his friends while sipping at a milkshake. "You're not my friends anymore and I hate you."

"I don't seem to remember you coming to my aid when a certain group of people decided to dump a certain kouhai on me," Marui said. He'd been waiting to get someone, anyone back for that series of incidents, and finally getting his revenge was sweeter than caramel bubblegum.

"It was for your own good," Sengoku said, patting Kamio on the shoulder. "You were looking grim, man. Grim." He handed Kamio a photo that Marui had taken during the Tachibana-Chitose match.

Kamio touched the photo. "Tachibana-san…"

Jirou took the photo. "But you're a new man now and you don't need Tachibana. You've got someone else. Someone better." Jirou tore up the photo. It was a duplicate and Marui had the photo stored on disc at home, just in case Kamio needed to be reminded how desperate and pathetic he was before his friends so kindly found him Oshitari Kenya.

"We checked him out already," Marui said. "He doesn't have any diseases or anything, so you'll be perfectly safe."

"D-disease?!" Kamio's face paled.

Jirou signaled for the waitress to bring another round of deserts. "He's Oshitari's cousin, and I know Oshitari so…yeah. We checked him out."

"I wore a maid costume for you," Sengoku said, taking Kamio's arm. "Do you understand how deep a bond that is, to wear a dress for another guy? Don't waste my efforts."

Marui, Jirou, and Eiji exchanged looks while Sengoku went on to describe the importance of his sacrifice. They wouldn't show him the photos they were putting in the special photo file they'd marked "Heterosexual?" and filled with several photographs of Sengoku in spandex and other dubious outfits. One day, when Kamio was settled down enough in his new relationship, they would gather the evidence and launch a new plan to test their theories.

Until then, there was always spandex.

"Hey! What's going on?" Kamio waved his hand in front of Marui's face.

"Oh, nothing." Bunta grinned and swiped a bite of Kamio's sundae. "Just thinkin' about something." He looked to Sengoku quickly then back to Kamio. He wiggled his eyebrows.

Kamio wiggled his eyebrows back and grinned, nice and wide.

Revenge was always the best motivation. Always.

  
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